Federal Express

Every Friday, we scan the weekly ads, deal sites and retailer marketing emails to find the best deals available for the coming week. Here are a few of the best freebies and limited-time offers we found.

Apple has finally introduced the iPhone 5. Smartphone fans and Apple investors are naturally excited: The very nature of the shiny new handset and the bar-raising nature of some of its features will send out ripples far beyond Cupertino.

On Monday, FedEx delivered some rough news to its employees: With profits down and cargo volume dropping, the company is going to tighten its belt and jettison some crewmen. Viewed in isolation, this might not seem like big news. But in context, it's a bad sign for for the U.S. economy.

On Monday, the stock market will take the day off to shake the confetti out of its hair. But on Tuesday, it'll be back to business as usual on Wall Street. Here are some of the items that will shape the first trading week of 2012.

Thirty large American corporations -- all of them profitable -- spent more money on lobbying than they paid in federal taxes from 2008 to 2010, according to a report from the nonpartisan reform group Public Campaign.

Amazon's holidays are off to a great start, but with its stock trading north of 100 times earnings, AMZN shares could be the one thing you don't want to buy from the online retailer. Instead, consider these companies that are riding on the coattails of the online shopping boom.

The cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service said Monday it is seeking to move quickly to close 252 mail processing centers and slow first-class delivery next spring, citing steadily declining mail volume. The cuts are part of $3 billion in reductions aimed at helping the agency avert bankruptcy next year.

If the USPS went into bankruptcy, would anyone care? Not according to former UPS board member Gary MacDougal, who argued in a scathing attack last week that "the rapid growth of email, online bill paying," and private parcel delivery firms like UPS and FedEx has made the Post Office obsolete. Statistics suggest he's right.

FedEx cut its earnings expectations for the fiscal year ending in May due to slowing global economic growth. The outlook from the world's second biggest package delivery company may add to growing investor concern about the strength of the worldwide economy.

As the U.S. Postal Service works feverishly to close its budget gap, UPS is taking advantage of the turmoil to highlight how much more innovative its brown-clad couriers can be, compared to their blue-suited cousins.

On Tuesday, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe went before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to plead for a government bailout. USPS is losing $9.2 billion a year and is currently on track to lose $20 billion annually by 2015. How can it be saved?

The U.S. Postal Service is expected to release a list Tuesday of 3,653 post offices it will consider shuttering, according to several media outlets. The USPS lost more than $2.2 billion last quarter, and has warned that it will run out of money in September, so such closures are probably inevitable.

Would the U.S. government really consider selling the Hoover Dam, all the gold in Fort Knox, or the naming rights to the Grand Canyon? That may depend on how desperate it is to balance the budget. Here are nine big U.S. assets whose auction could take a real bite out of the deficit.

Expect to pay more this year for many consumer goods -- from diapers to toothpaste to Big Macs. Just as the typical American family will finally have a few more dollars to spend, inflation will take a chunk of that extra cash.

Viewed as an economic bellwether, shipping company Federal Express said its profit fell 3% in the third quarter due to higher fuel prices. But its shares rose more than 5% after the company said pricing gains in the fourth quarter will likely mean that it will beat most Wall Street expectations.

Now that the skies are clearing after the worst economic storm in modern history -- far more violent than the experts had predicted -- we face a surprising new roster of winners and losers, as Fortune's 2011 ranking of the World's Most Admired Companies makes clear.

Once a clearly defined term that meant "to use force to compel or control a physical thing," drive has become one of the most insidious and overused buzzwords in the lexicon. Often now, what's being driven is intangible, and the mechanics of what's doing the driving are a mystery. So, who's driving this buzzword train, anyway?

Hundreds of e-tailers will offer free shipping today to encourage shoppers to hit the "buy" button in the final run-up to Christmas. It's a good incentive for last-minute shoppers, but is it also an attempt to keep up with Amazon's free shipping offers?

Shipping company FedEx (FDX), often seen as a bellwether of the economy, reported Wednesday that net income in its fiscal 2011 second-quarter declined 18% from a year ago period, even as revenue climbed 12%. Both income and revenue missed Wall Street estimates. The company, however, raised it fiscal 2011 outlook as holiday volumes exceed expectations.

Right now, millions of Christmas presents are zooming around the country in FedEx trucks -- driven, one might think, by FedEx employees. However, it turns out the employment status of those drivers depends on which state they are working in, and according to a judicial ruling issued Tuesday, most are independent contractors.

FedEx (FDX) is gearing up its busiest day of the year, confident that holiday shopping will help push traffic above its 2009 peak.
FedEx, based in Memphis, Tenn., expects to handle about 16 million packages worldwide today, according to The Wall Street Journal. That%u2019s nearly 13% higher than its busiest day in 2009.

The world's largest retailer plans to increase the number of its smaller-format stores and cut the size of new SuperCenters to expand to new markets and boost sales, especially among the lower-income households it considers its base.

As the mid-term election slowly draw nearer, we're taking a look at the companies whose deep pockets help keep America's political campaigns rolling along. With the help of the nonpartisan folks at the Center for Responsive Politics, we've combined a list of the top ten corporate campaign contributors, offering a look at the candidates they support, the issues that concern them, and their lobbying habits.

FedEx, the world's biggest air-cargo carrier, will boost shipping rates in January as it looks to offset the effects of rising fuel costs on its bottom line. The company will increase FedEx Express shipping rates for domestic and export services by an average of 3.9%.